Anecdotes from the Sydney Dating Scene

The Date with Drew

Ok, so Drew is not his real name, but on the morning before our date it finally occurred to me who my date reminded me of. Drew Carey when he got thin. So my date looked just like the picture above, but about 15 years younger and not wearing a bow tie….

I’ll admit, it deterred me a little. I sent a pic of my date, plus the pic of Drew to my girlfriends Ms K and Ms E and they replied trying to be quite positive saying things like ‘Maybe he’s really funny?!?’.

I talked myself out of the date all afternoon, but I’m not the type to pull out at the last minute unless I really have to, so I headed off to the date after work. When I got inside the restaurant he was sitting at a little table for two in the corner. He stood when I arrived and I gave him a kiss on the cheek and he offered to switch seats as the other chair was in the aisle that headed in towards the kitchen. What a gentleman – I’m again liking his style!

We sat and he started talking – FAST! He seemed really nervous and his conversation was definitely on fast forward. The waitress came over and we had not even looked at the menu after about 5 mins, so she said she’d return for our drink orders. He asked if I was in the mood for wine – anyone that knows me well will know that I am always in the mood for wine and he passes me the wine list to pick what I wanted.

I tell him I’m in the mood for the Barossa Shiraz and he asks if we should get a bottle. I say sure , why not! I’m driving but it looked like the dinner would be full of conversation and go long enough for me to be able to share almost half a red. He orders the red, it comes and after the waitress leaves the table he tells me he likes the wine, but he usually doesn’t drink red. He doesn’t drink much wine at all, but when he does it’s mostly white. Oh stop it, you are being far too sweet trying to please me….but I kinda like it!

We get a couple of tapas dishes to share. The food comes out slowly which is ideal as we are busy chatting along the way. It is non stop chat and he comes across as very intelligent and has a rational and logical view point on life. Although he has moved interstate away from his family, he is very close to them and lights up when he talks about them, but not in a mumma’s boy kind of way.

He polishes off the rest of the tapas after politely asking me if I wanted the last of each dish. I read the dessert menu earlier and have my eye on something sweet instead. He said he too read it at work and was thinking the same thing. Great minds hey!

We get dessert and finish the wine. The waitress comes over to wrap things up as everyone else has now left. He takes the bill and I do my ‘Would you like go halves?’ question, even though I really don’t mean it. I think I’ve mentioned before that even though I am a modern woman in many ways, I really appreciate old school, gentlemanly charm!

He says ‘no, don’t be silly’ and gives the waitress his credit card. We leave the restaurant and my car is parked just up the street which is on the way to the train station where he needs to go. I notice as we are walking along that I’m a bit taller than him. I’m 5’10” and his profile said he was 5’11”. I was wearing ankle boots with a pretty standard 3″ heel, so I was standing about 6’1″ tall. I find myself slighting stooping to adjust the height differential. We stand talking about my car for a while (initiated by him I would just like to point out for those that know me and know how I like to bang on about Black Betty) and whilst engrossed in conversation a homeless man turns up out of nowhere asking for money.

That’s our queue to say goodnight for sure! I give him a kiss on the cheek and jump in the car saying ‘Let’s talk soon’. This is standard practice for ending pretty much all of my dates, whether I mean it or not, but on this occasion I do. I’m not sure I really felt the romantic chemistry on the date, but it was certainly fun and I would be happy to see him again to see if there is actually anything there.

I txt him when I get home and thank him again for dinner and say it’s my shout next time. He replies saying that it might offend his old fashioned sensibilities for me to pay, but says he’ll hold me to it.